Project for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train: An update on progress on the mountain tunnel is provided by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

 Project for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train: An update on progress on the mountain tunnel is provided by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

As stated by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in a post on social networking site X, construction on the mountain tunnel for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed train link is finished.

Trains will travel over this line at up to 350 km/h, according to authorities. A 350-meter-long horseshoe-shaped tunnel in the mountains close to Zaroli hamlet has been built.

Six more tunnels will be built by the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) along the 508-kilometer line between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Modern Shinkansen trainsets that will be purchased from Japan will be used to link these tunnels.

The Valsad section's Chief Project Manager, S P Mittal, took delight in the accomplishment, saying, "What makes us celebrate it is that building is the first tunnel in India that can accommodate a train with a speed of 350 kmph will pass," according to PTI. He said, "We have just dug the skeleton foundation of the complete tunnel and the finishing work will start now." 

The toughest problem, he said, was how to maintain the tunnel's alignment at all times.A little alignment error might cause trouble. Therefore, every specification must be followed exactly, and any deviations must be less than one millimeter, according to Mittal. 

Larsen and Toubro was given the contract for this project, and the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) was used for construction. In various hilly locations of India, rail and road projects employ the tried-and-true NATM methodology. 

According to Mittal, the tunneling project required a sizable staff and went on for more than a year. To protect employees and neighboring households from injury, safety precautions were of utmost importance during blasting operations. He said that during the whole building time, his crew did not have even a single undesirable incidence.

The project to build a bullet train began in 2016 and was supposed to be finished in December 2023 after the foundation stone was set in 2017.  Due to problems with land acquisition, the project was delayed. Although building is still ongoing, a new operationalization timetable for the project has not yet been disclosed.

Read also: Trains at a Glance: Indian Railway adds 64 Vande Bharat trains to new itinerary

"A commuter using this bullet train can complete the 508-km journey in two hours and seven minutes," an NHSRCL spokeswoman told PTI. Currently, the train trip lasts over five hours. 

In a statement, NHSRCL said that the tunnel was situated around a kilometer away from Zaroli Village in Umbergaon Taluka, Valsad. The tunnel is 12.6 meters in diameter, 350 meters long, and 10.25 meters high.

Additionally, contracts have been let out for the building of six additional mountain tunnels utilizing the NATM method in the Palghar district of Maharashtra.